Save the World

This is one of the short sections at the end of my new book: Get Married and Save the World. I feel it captures the overall spirit and purpose of the book, even if it doesn't talk about a single doctrine. It is a part of the lifeblood of my message.

I was inspired to write this short section while watching an Ofra Haza video. It is one of her singing Laner V'livsamim around the table with little children. This is a traditional song in Orthodox Judaism at the end of Sabbath. The song put these thoughts in my mind, and this message found its way into the end of my book.

Imagine someone you know who has died. Most of us know someone. If you don't, then imagine a friend of a friend, or someone in history. Or Christ. Imagine someone who died.

I have known a few. A musician friend in Spain who killed himself with drugs, who was terribly addicted. No more. I will never see him again, unless he came to know Christ before he died. I also know my cousin, who had been about the same age as I, who drowned in a swimming pool. No one expects to lose someone to drowning in a swimming pool, but one day someone we love is here, and the next day they are not. I lost a baby boy to heart illness, at just 15 days. You can almost call it a privilege to be able to love someone so much who dies. To see someone pass is almost a supernatural experience. It is beyond everything we understand—just as the conception of a new life seems supernatural.

Loving someone who dies is a gift. This love should overflow into other souls, should be a well of water that we can gift to others. This love should enlighten all relationships. Seeing death personally teaches us to care for and protect our fellow man, to see the importance of his nourishment, his strength, his mind and all he can do in this universe. This love makes us want our fellow man never to be degraded.

If you feel the same way, you should also know the sacredness of God's family. Of marriage and childbearing. It is how God cares for, protects, nourishes, educates and blesses the earth around us. We often say to ourselves, I wish society would care for the poor better. But we ARE society, and when we have a family, we ourselves care for the poor. We often say, why doesn't someone educate the children of society better. But in the family we have our own chance to do that, without turning to anyone else. People complain, why don't parents discipline their children, why are they out committing crimes all night. Well, we can answer that complaint ourselves, by raising our own children and disciplining them so they know right from wrong, so that they respect God and respect the law. We complain about all the children in society without homes, but we are the ones who can give them a home ourselves, and make sure it's a safe one. So, who are we complaining about? If you want to love God and man, have a family and save the world. It's in your hands.

Forget about the years of acquiring the highest financial platform in life. Forget about the decades of hedonism which you think are your birthright as a Westerner. Forget about the drinks, the parties, the sports and your travel plans. Get married. Have a family. Save the world.

– Tom Ackerman earned a BA in Writing from St. Edward's University. He lived overseas for twelve years, and came to faith at age 31 in Krakow, Poland. He's since been sharing the Gospel, and held many jobs, including teacher, travel writer, and street performer.

He is the author of the new book, Get Married and Save the World, a doctrinal and practical guide to the main elements of the Christian marriage union. It is also a call to Christians to live fully in the Holy Spirit and reject the flesh, in our families and our homes. The book will appeal to readers who know the Church has turned away from God's Word and is soaking in carnal goals. Its readers should take away a broad and deep understanding of marriage and be confident in their own marriages to bless the world.